Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner said last night that she's not very optimistic the legislature will provide the $64 million needed to replace all touch-screen voting machines in the state with paper ballots by the fall election as she wants.

But Brunner said she will seek more back-up paper ballots at the polls in counties with touch-screens and take other steps to ensure that the state is ready for a presidential election that she predicted could have 80 percent voter turnout.

"We know that the watchword for this year is preparation because you need to expect the best but prepare for the worst, and that's what we will do this year," Brunner told a gathering of Faith Vote Columbus at Trinity Baptist Church on St. Clair Avenue.

Brunner, Gov. Ted Strickland and U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown all spoke before the 2006 election to Faith Vote Columbus, a nonpartisan coalition of churches, neighborhood associations and labor unions.

The Democrats all promised to return after their first year in office to report their progress.

The group had challenged Brunner to fight the requirement to show identification at the polls and to ensure that voting machines are distributed evenly so that lines are not longer in inner-city precincts, as they were in some areas in 2004.

Brunner said she fought the identification law before it was passed in 2005 and, since taking office last year, has sought to clarify and expand the types of ID that are acceptable at the polls.

She also has been pushing to scrap touch-screen voting machines in favor of the statewide use of optically scanned paper ballots, after a study last fall concluded that the machines were vulnerable to tampering and error.

But legislative leaders, some county elections officials and others have balked at the move -- especially the estimated price tag of $64 million -- after the state spent nearly $100 million in federal funds since 2005 to replace older systems.

Brunner told the group last night that she doesn't have "a lot of optimism" that the funding will be available this year, so she said she is working with Strickland and the legislature on other ways to address concerns before the Nov. 4 election.

They include more poll-worker training, requiring more paper ballots if the machines break down or if lines get long, and clear procedures so that voters can be diverted from a machine line to a paper-ballot line if turnout is heavy.

mniquette@dispatch.com